Beginner with Many Questions

That is right for me but others could have all kinds of opinoins. I just believe we should keep it simple. Your are really just starting out and it should be a joy and not a trial of frustration. The water will hold you up and the secret of swimming is not to swim over the top of the water.

Your are really just starting out and it should be a joy and not a trial of frustration. The water will hold you up and the secret of swimming is not to swim over the top of the water. :wine:

My understanding is TI is good for people who didn't learn to swim as kids and want to learn as adults. I have no coaching experience so don't take anything I say as gospel. I'd say the most important thing is your body position. I see some people learning and their hips are dragging, they are so far from horizontal it's like they're fighting a wall of water to move anywhere. Check that first. By the way what is your home town? I think I recognize your name and your age is about the same as a classmate's big brother.

it's actually 1) Breathe 2) Hold your breath and 3) Breathe out just before you breathe again on distance swimming you're better off perfecting the 2 beat kick to conserve energy the critical thing for you is to improve your technique lengthen your distance per stroke learn how to swim relaxed runners are notorious for poor body positon and over kicking Thanks for reading my long post and thanks for all the good advice: What I've learned so far: Breathe out fully underwater through nose and mouth Take a deep breath Work on a nice efficient kick Thanks guys! I will keep working at it. I want to set a good example for little girl!

You're getting so much good advice, I don't want to say much more. One thing to try and do is to try making your breathing seem natural. You shouldn't (at this point) be holding your breath. Instead, focus on making your breathing relaxed and getting enough air. It's so cliche but the more you relax the better you'll swim. Also, make sure you aren't over-kicking and unnecessarily depriving yourself of oxygen. Save your uber-kicking for sprints.

A good drill to teach relaxed and rhythmic breathing is bobbing. Start in water about 4-5 feet deep, exhale and bend knees blowing bubbles as you submerge. Then push up (easily) with your legs to get clear for a breath, taking in just enough air to repeat the cycle. Do maybe 10 or 15 times trying to stay as relaxed as possible. You can move to deeper water where you'll have to use your arms by adding one breastroke pull on the up, then lifting them overhead (out of the water) as you take your breath. The added weight of your arms being out of the water combined with exhaling should give enough downward force to make this drill possible even in water as deep as 10'. Bobbing should be done slowly and relaxed. Good luck!

I went for a swim today and felt much better. I swam 50 meters a few times without stopping. I focused on my breathing and working on kicking a little. I also met someone there that gave me a lot of good advice and watched me a little. I'm not holding my head so deep and I think this is helping me rotate to breathe. Also, I tried to rotate for my breath only after I saw my left hand enter the water (breathing on my right side). Funny thing is, I took a 18 mi bike ride to the pool, swam, then rode back home. I think the bike ride loosened me up some. Some of you suggested that I'm either too excited or too tense and this may be the case. The long warm up seemed to help. Oh, I was breathing out through my nose and mouth this time and that felt a lot better. I'll keep working on it. Thanks for all of you advice and encouragement!

Lots of good advice, most of it similar. I'll add: 1. I suggest breathing every two strokes initially. Yes it is better to breathe both sides for balance, but early on it is probably better to get good at one side. It also helps early on to to get a breath when you're not desperate for air. You'll be more relaxed, which produces better technique. Lots of elite swimmers breathe to just one side in races. 2. Most tris I know want to save their legs for the bike/run. But you need to kick, at least a little bit. It helps your overall stroke, contributes to rhythm, and will make you go faster. You should probably develop a good two beat kick and keep the legs near the surface. 3. I'm surprised your current coach says to look at the wall ahead of you. One interesting thing about swimming - it seems as if your head and hips are connected and move in opposite directions. Raise your head, your hips will sink. That's bad. Do not look down the pool - that will raise your head. Look at the bottom or slightly in front of you. 4. Open water swimming is harder than the pool. You will have waves, no stripe on the bottom to follow, and you will get kicked. You will probably swallow water. So be prepared to lift your head occasionally to sight your way and expect to get a mouthful of water when you least expect it.

Head position is important, Your coach may not mean that you lift your head but means not too bury your head too deep. He maybe just telling you, eyes forward. If you watch a good swimmer you will find nearly all are looking slightly forward. Swimmers head positions are not all the same you just have to find which is best for you. The biggest fault with breathing is that a lot of swimmers are breathing in with the chin tucked in and this restricts the air. Do not breathe in with the mouth almost in the arm pit, look at the side of the pool.

Head Position: TI teaches head low in the water, eyes looking at the bottom of pool. My coach last summer taught the same thing. My new coach says head is way too low and making my breathing a lot harder than it should be. New coach says look at the opposite end of the pool. Which one is right? Some people say look at the floor 6 feet ahead. Is there a right and a wrong? Lots of philosopies on this one. My personal one is that it depends on what distance you're swimming. If you're spriting, the water should be hitting you at about your hair line (or where your hairline was in college. :laugh2:). When spriting, your body should be curved, like a banana or a smile, which means your head is higher, looking slightly forward. When swimming distance like you will in a triathlon, you probably want to have your head in line with your spine (maybe a smidge higher) so that it doesn't get too tired or cause drag. As an aside, one of the things that people overlook when they become too focused on head placement is the whole "swimming on your bubble" thing. The air in your chest is your "bubble" and if you kind of float in the water and mess around with pushing your chest down slowly against the water and trying to get a feel for the way the water pushes back on your chest and the way your chest placement affects your hip placement affects your leg placement/depth (sort of like a teeter-totter), it can be kind of a good exercise, just kind of educational. If you've got your head low, but your chest is not really creating that balance for your hips/legs, you're going to be just kind of curved over in the water. Since the idea is to be "long" in the water, you need to be thinking about more than just head placement. Really, head placement is kind of an afterthought. Figure out how to balance yourself in the water using your chest and then just line your head up with your spine. It's a lot easier than trying to get the perfect position for your head and then line your chest, hips, and legs up with that. Kick: How do I develop a strong kick and do I need one? TI says no kickboard and to develop a non-overt kick. Both of my coaches said my kick stinks and put me on kickboards. When kicking, should the feet stay close together (i.e., pigeon toed)? When I taught swimming to little kids, I used to tell them to make their big toes fight while kicking. Think about smacking your big toes against each other on each kick. Obviously, you don't want to do this forever, but it's a good place to start until you get used to the feel of a strong kick and then you can move them apart a couple inches, but still keep them pretty close. Keep in mind, big splash does not equal fast kick. Flexibility in your ankles is key. Stay away from fins until you have a "feel" for your kick. I don't think it matters if you use a kickboard or not, but if you kick on your back, you get a better workout and it helps you learn to balance yourself in the water (bubble and all). Breathing: My new coach says breathe out through nose and in through mouth. She also says breathe all air out before taking a breath. If I don't do this (except during extreme physical exertion on land) why would I do it while swimming the first event in a 3 event race? She also recommends NOT breathing every 2nd stroke but every 3rd (bilateral) or even 4th. I disagree with breathing out through nose and in through mouth. I have my mouth open pretty much the entire time I'm swimming. And my breathing out feels more like huff and less like a stream of air. It's almost a sigh and then breathing in is more like the kind of breath you take when you're startled: quick, sharp, deep. A good way to practice this is to do it while running and to use your feet as a pacer. So breath out for four steps, breath in for two. That'll help you get used to the rythm of it. I agree with breathing every three - it's ideal. But I'm weak, so what I usually end up doing is breathing two to one side then two to the other, so I guess my breathing pattern is 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3. 4 strokes is probably too much for a beginner. (ps: sorry if my quotes didn't work, I'm new to this format)